Metal Bulletin Group buys FastMarkets

NEW YORK — Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc, parent company of Metal Bulletin Group, has agreed to acquire FastMarkets Ltd. in a move that will increase the depth of information and data services Metal Bulletin provides its clients across the metals and mining markets supply chain.

The deal is expected to be completed in early September, with Euromoney making a £13.1-million ($16.9-million) cash payment for FastMarkets, according to Metal Bulletin divisional director Raju Daswani.

“FastMarkets is an excellent business that perfectly complements our global portfolio of price reporting, data and information products,” he said.

FastMarkets, a major provider of real-time metals market information, will become an integral part of price reporting agency Metal Bulletin Group’s global markets intelligence service, which also includes AMM and Industrial Minerals.

“Metal Bulletin has captured the recent volatility in markets as diverse as iron ore, aluminum premiums, cobalt, and nickel and manganese ore, through to copper refining charges,” Daswani noted. “These movements have highlighted the need for high-quality price reporting on the physical metal markets to supplement the price discovery function of the world’s commodity futures exchanges. This acquisition complements Metal Bulletin and extends our global coverage of metals markets.”

Metal Bulletin plans to offer services based on the FastMarkets platform to other sectors of the metal industry that are long-term users of Metal Bulletin prices and information, such as steelmaking raw materials, scrap, steel, ores and alloys, minor metals and industrial minerals.

“FastMarkets adds strong real-time market data capabilities to Metal Bulletin’s preeminent position as the world’s leading provider of benchmark prices for metals,” FastMarkets chief executive officer Dominic Hall said in a statement. “Together, we become the metal industry’s most important source for market intelligence, market data and benchmark pricing.”

London-based Metal Bulletin has an international team of 160 people focused on physical metal and mining market assessments, and it provides more than 1,500 proprietary prices, which are used for benchmarking contracts related to physical trades. Financial contracts are also settled against Metal Bulletin prices.

The publication celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013.

Established in 1999, FastMarkets (www.fastmarkets.com) is used by nonferrous and precious metals traders and risk managers every day as an important work flow tool.

Through its high-quality online platform, FastMarkets provides more than 120 proprietary price assessments, combined with exchange data including futures prices from the world’s largest commodity exchanges, such as the London Metal Exchange and CME Group Inc. FastMarkets provides coverage of nonferrous physical premiums, plus supporting treasury data backed by market commentary, including webcasts directly from the LME floor.

FastMarkets, also in London, delivers daily technical and fundamental reports to its users as well.